The Road So Far
by Kathryn Brennan
Summary: When Kate Beckett disappears from New York, how far will Castle go to find the truth?
1. Chapter 1

Something was wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong.

Kate was gone. No explanation to anyone. One day a few weeks ago, she just didn't show up to work. Nothing was missing from her apartment besides a single outfit; there was no sign of forced entry, nothing. She just vanished.

And that was worse than anything else. Castle was a wreck. He could not remember the last time he had a full nights rest. All he would do was sit in front of the murder board at the precinct with Ryan and Esposito helping in between the cases they were forced to work. He couldn't sit at her desk without her there, so his chair had migrated to sit next to Ryan. That's where he sat from the day she was gone until the day he left. He brought coffee for the pair instead of Beckett. He needed to do something useful, not like what he had been doing with her mother's murder. That had been fruitless, idiotic, and a waste of time.

The second he found Kate, he would tell her these things. He would tell her how horrible and selfish he had been. Then he would call her out on hiding from him. Then everything would be okay. Everything would be perfect, and they would be happy, and no one would hurt them ever, ever again. Castle refused to see the flaw in that plan. There was a total possibility for this to happen. For them to get a happily ever after. To just be happy. But everything got in the way, always.

Ryan would always try to crack jokes at the precinct. Esposito would get lunches and make sure Gates wasn't always breathing down their necks. They still made a good team, but just not good enough.

But what Rick didn't tell them is that almost every night was spent at her apartment. He would lie on her couch, breathing in her faint scent. It would be a lie to say he hadn't fallen asleep in her bed before, face scrunched into her pillow, wishing she was there with him.

It took them a month to even find her trail. Wisconsin. That was the first sighting they had of her. She looked the same to Castle. Her clothes were different, but even through the camera screen he could tell it was her. The way she walked, the way her hair was styled, the clothes she had bought. It was her.

He thought it was her. Her eyes, something was wrong with her eyes. They were darker than her remembered. The pixels could have changed it, but the hazel was gone. It was almost black, but that was impossible.

Castle paid for first class for Esposito and Ryan to fly with him to the city. But he could not stay with them. He went out at night looking for her alone. But the trail went dry within a few days. No sign of her anywhere in the town they had landed and the two cops had to return to New York and back to their jobs. But Castle didn't need too. Alexis was old enough to be alone, and she really wasn't alone that much with Martha there.

It took Castle a week after his friends left before his hope began to dwindle. He kept walking around, stopping at stores with her picture, eating near windows at different restaurants.

It took him five weeks since Kate disappeared to see her. She turned on the street he was walking down and strolled past him, ignoring him completely. There was a brief moment in his mind where everything went blank. There was a buzzing in his ears as he watched her figure move away.

"Kate?" She kept moving. "Beckett!" She turned to look at him with a strange look on her face. But she kept walking. Castle began to sprint towards her and he grabbed her arm over the thick grey coat she had on.

That was a mistake. She turned around, her eyes flashing black, and slapped him across the face. There was a force so powerful behind her swing that Castle flew into the brick building five feet behind him. The noise of his shoulder poping was the last thing he could remember before he crumpled in a heap on the ground.


	2. Chapter 2

Crack fic part 2!

For Hanna.

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><p>Castle woke to water getting splashed on his face. Sputtering, he opened his eyes and quickly shut them again when the light hit them. There was someone standing over him, maybe even two people. The pounding ache in his bones was almost enough to want to just drift away into sleep again.<p>

But then he remembered. Kate. How had Kate done that? No matter how much she bulked up, there was no possible way she could throw him that far and that hard into a wall. Her eyes were so different. Scary almost. He thought something was wrong on the video and now he knows for sure.

"Hey, dude. You alright there?"

The voice was loud and coming from above him. Castle let out a groan and vraced himself when he opened his eyes. A man was standing about him, his sandy brown hair sticking up in front. He held out a hand to Castle. The small man was a lot stronger than he appeared as Castle was lifted off the concrete and onto his feet.

"Uh, yeah I guess so. I've been better. Did you happen to see the girl who did this?"

"Yeah. I saw her walk off, don't worry we've been tracking her for weeks. My name is Dean, by the way. FBI."

FBI. What did the FBI want with Kate? Something was not right here, not right at all.

"Why are you after Kate? What do you know that you're not telling the cops?"

The look on Dean's face was one of complete shock. He had obviously not expected him to know the woman who had thrown him.

"Hey, mister I don't know where the hell you are from but you need to go back right now. You are way over your head!"

"The hell I am! There's no way I'm leaving without her!"

Then it clicked for Dean. "You're with her aren't you? You love her. I can see it in your eyes. Which is more the reason to get the hell out while you still can."

"No."

Dean gave a sigh and rubbed a hand down his face. There was no way to get this guy to walk away from this. Sometimes finding people like this was a joy, but in this case it was a pain. The girl he was after was bad news. Well, the meatsuit wasn't, but the demon that had made a home inside of her was. It was a freshly out of hell demon, with a taste for blood. It took the Winchester's two weeks to figure out who was causing the deaths that started in New York and spread across the northwest, and even then they could not have come close to finding it. It was not until there was a mysterious death in the town a few miles away that the pair knew how close they were.

It was possible that she was just out to have some fun, if you could call it that. But being in this line of business for such a long time, the brothers knew there was a bigger reason. Demons don't usually go on country wide killing sprees on their own. Not without an organization and plan behind them. It was as if a crossroads demon needed a new home, picked the first female it ran into, and started disobeying orders. It would be _so_ much easier if demons would just follow the ten year plan

What had brought this particular demon to the Winchesters attention is the fact that each victim had a life dream come true before biting it the next day. With the deaths almost in a straight line, they knew it had to be something bad that did not give a shit about getting screwed over in hell when it got sent back.

As Dean stared into Castles hard glare, he realized he would have done the same thing if it was someone he loved. Rolling his eyes, he gave a huge sigh and turned on his heel and stalked away back toward his motel room. The padding of feet behind Dean informed him that the mystery man was following him. He turned quickly back around and waiting for him to catch up.

"What's your name?"

"Castle. Just call me Castle. If you don't mind me asking, what exactly is going on?"

"It's not safe to do this in public. Trust me when I say you want to be sitting down."

xXxXx

"I knew it! I just knew it!"

The brothers looked to each other then back to Castle, who was sitting excitedly on the crappy motel bed. This is different than the usual reactions. But then again, this was an unusual case.

"The only reason we are telling you this is because we're going to need your help. We need you to lure Kate out in the open so we can take her. The longer the demon stays with her, the stronger it's going to get and the less likely we are going to be able to remove it without killing her in the process." Sam pushed his long hair out of his eyes before continuing. "This is going to be dangerous. Really, really dangerous and we need to know that you're going to be able to do this, even if it turns ugly. We're going to try our hardest, we promise, but bad things happen. Trust us on that."

Castle nodded. There was a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach, but it had been there since the day she left. Now that feeling had turned concrete; if he fucked this up Kate could die. She could die in one of the most horrible ways possible.

"I'll do the best I can. I promise."

xXxXx

The boys took all day to explain how they wanted to trap the demon. Castle knew his part. They decided to start their plan the next night at the crossroads just outside of the small town. There was no reference for Castle to go off of except for the Winchester's stories.

Castle stood on the center of the dirt roads, a small box in his hand. Moving his eyes to his watch, Castle waited patiently for a moment more before placing the item into the ground and covering it up, trying not to hear the rattle of the bones inside of it.

Dean warned him of the dangers in this type of deal. Her eyes were black, not red, so they had less of a clue how powerful she could be. But they did not tell him how quick she would be there.

"How can I help you?"

Her voice was different; lower and more seductive. And all around not what he wanted to hear. She stood there in front of him in a dark blazer, red tank top, tight jeans, and mile high heels. The term sex hair was not even close to what curled around her face. A smile curled up her lips and her hands rested on her hips.

"I…I…I need help. I need to locate someone. A certain someone."

The not-Kate stalked toward him, smiling larger. "Oh? I think you came to the right place."

Castle took a few steps backward, stumbling over a piece of wood lying on the ground. Cold laughter rang out for a brief moment as he landed on the ground. He scrambled backward over the ground as Kate came closer. Her eyes were freaking him out. With her head cocked to the side, a creepy smile on her face, and the different style of walking she had developed, she looked liked a reborn serial killer.

Not working for Castle in the attraction department.

But before Kate could reach him, she stopped dead in her tracks. Her shoes made a different sound than they had before and she looked confused before her eyes raged in anger. Leaning down, she scrapped the dirt away to reveal wood with paint on it.

She looked up at Castle and the Winchester's who were revealing themselves from a hundred yards away. A deep growl rose from her throat when she realized her situation.

"I'm going to tear you limb from limb."

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><p>Reviews would be swell!<p> 


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